Will humans travel to the stars: Feasibility of interstellar travel

The feasibility of interstellar travel is a much debatable topic. Will humans be able to travel to the stars? The ability to travel between galaxies is an achievement humans are still lifetimes from reaching. Though galaxies within the universe are innumerable, even the closest of stars is light years away. A light year is determined by the speed of light and the distance it can cover within a vacuum during a Julian year. That number, known to most people only as “very far”, is near to the distance of 10 trillion kilometers. That’s close to 20,000 Earth years to travel one light year with our current technology. In simpler terms: It is impossible to reach even the nearest star within a lifetime.

Dr. MichioKaku, a theoretical physicist and respected scientific author, calls the distance between spacial masses the “giggle factor” due to the absurd amount of time needed for interstellar travel.

When you think about this impressive gap between our planet and other planets with intelligent life, the chances of alien visitors becomes much more unlikely. Not only would another civilization have to have the ability to fly, self-sustained, through space, it would also need to have the capability to manipulate time, space, or both. Despite the numerous experts in the field of extraterrestrial investigation, the scientific community views such authorities with little respect.

Dr. Kaku describes such researchers as scientists on their last chance for career acknowledgement. Statistics demonstrate that 99% of all alien sightings can be disproven through other phenomenon. The curious fact, and the one that prompted legitimate physic studies into interstellar research, is that the other 1% of UFO reports have come from credible, multiple sources, and have been tracked on radar and in video. Such reports are hard to dispute.

For an alien culture to have the ability to travel through space, the first thing they would need is an advance propulsion system. All of Earth’s propulsion systems rely on a chemical reaction that cannot be sustained indefinitely. This is one of the reasons why, on a scale of 0-3, we are a Type-0 civilization. NASA is currently experimenting with ion propulsion, a low thrust but continuous type of propulsion. While this will not be practical for any purpose on the planet, in the vacuum of space, a little bit of thrust can go a long way; an indefinite way, to be exact.

But for true interstellar propulsion, harnessing the power generated from the free-floating hydrogen in space or using the energy derived from anti-matter collisions would be the only practical way for long-haul journeys to the stars. The dilemma now is that you have propulsion, but no way to travel at the speed of light. The stars are still too far apart.

Interstellar Travel Through Wormholes

Right now, the only theories involving faster travel through space involve manipulation of wormholes. The principles of space and time are difficult for the average human to grasp, but those two properties can be manipulated if the force is great enough. Worm holes and black holes require an enormous amount of energy to create—the explosion of an entire star or better. To manipulate this energy, and to find a way to predict or create the output destination are still mysteries to science. In fact, we don’t really know what happens within such a center of energy. We know matter and light vanish, but we have yet to discover the “output” location of a known black hole.

These mentioned technological dilemmas are only a few from the long list of requirements needed to be able to traverse the solar system. If an alien civilization had truly harnessed such capabilities, we would be to them as ants are to us.

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